Kyle Walker

tidycensus 2.0.0, one of the milestones from this summer's R Consortium grant, is now on CRAN. The package now has a modernized httr2 backend, lots of internal improvements, and long-requested features like auto-labels for variables. The 2025 1-year ACS drops next week, so update today!

tigris v2.3.0, one of the major milestones from this summer's R Consortium grant, is now on CRAN. - The package has a modern httr2 backend now, which will help the package last into the future; - New features include `population_centers()`, shown here; - The open issue count is now at zero!

I've added support in spopt-r for spider (desire) lines to the package's location-allocation solvers. Spider lines can be straight or can even follow the road network with r5r. This demo uses the new shinyreact framework for Shiny to visualize optimization solutions in real time.

The upcoming release of the mapgl #rstats package supports donut charts for circle clustering. This won't be everyone's favorite technique, but I like how you can visualize the internal composition of clusters. Try it out live by clicking the "Clusters" option: walker-data.com/maps/census-...

The improved clustering engine in the next release of freestiler can scale beyond a billion points with smooth performance. I've got a powerful MacBook but I did all the processing on a laptop. So many possibilities are getting unlocked in geospatial right now.

"Fade on zoom" is one of my favorite cartographic techniques. Interpolate a layer's opacity by zoom level to progressively show more data and eventually show all data at full zoom. Try it live in my latest project which maps the 2020 US Census by age group: walker-data.com/maps/census-...

The classic Racial Dot Map inspired me and a whole generation of mapmakers. Today, I'm publishing a modern take on this map, built with the geospatial tools I've been developing over the past decade. Interact with the map here: walker-data.com/maps/census-...

The dot view shows density and patterns the best, but can be tricky to read. The hexagons highlight broad patterns; click a hexagon to see a group breakdown within it. And the cluster donut view won't be everyone's favorite - but I like the way it shows relative proportions at various scales.

The map is built on top of my R packages tidycensus, freestiler, and mapgl, with data packaged as PMTiles and hosted on Cloudflare then visualized in MapLibre. There's a bonus in the map as well - expand the "About this map" panel to find it!

View: - The classic dot map with all 331 million Americans represented when fully zoomed in; - H3 hexagons that transition on zoom, color-coded by the most common group in the hexagon; - Donut chart clusters that break into smaller clusters, and eventually individual dots, when you zoom in.

Dot locations are simulated within Census blocks; they are not actual residential locations. Plus, the Census protects respondent privacy with noise infusion. Read the dots as broad spatial patterns, not precise information about individuals.

21 Aug

New post: how to visualize millions of parcels on a map. Learn how I go from 14.3 million Texas parcel records in a 7GB geodatabase to a published interactive map. Featuring tools like DuckDB, PMTiles, R, and Cloudflare R2. Read it here: walker-data.com/posts/millio...

10 Aug

Mapped: % of US-born adults, by PUMA (~100k-200k people), born in their current state of residence. Lots to unpack in this one. Explore the interactive map: walker-data.com/maps/born-in... For those so inclined, the source code is here: gist.github.com/walkerke/875...

Identifying possible gas-flare operators from satellite heat signals. Mapping persistent NASA VIIRS thermal detections across Texas, then matching the strongest candidates to nearby on-schedule RRC wells and their operators.

I'm excited to share that I've received a grant from R Consortium to modernize R's tigris and tidycensus packages this summer. Over the past decade, tigris and tidycensus have become fixtures in R's demographic and spatial data ecosystems.

Everything will just work better and more reliably under the hood. I'll also be clearing out the issue backlogs, fully supporting the existing APIs and adding new features that have long been shelved.

github.comGitHub - walkerke/tigris: Download and use Census TIGER/Line shapefiles in RDownload and use Census TIGER/Line shapefiles in R - walkerke/tigris

If you're a Census data user and there are features you'd like to see in either package, now is a great time to file an issue or feature request. tigris: github.com/walkerke/... tidycensus:

While I and other contributors have maintained them - and they both still work well - I've wanted to modernize the infrastructure to ensure they keep working for users for the next 10 years. The R Consortium is generously supporting this project.

This summer, I'll be overhauling the backends of both packages to make them more modern and sustainable. The R interfaces will look the same for users - you won't have to worry about breaking changes to your existing data pipelines.

Together, they've been downloaded nearly 2 million times from the Posit CRAN mirror alone. Much of the underlying code that runs the packages, however, is a decade old. I taught myself R while writing these packages... and if you browse some of the source code, it shows.

28 June

Understanding site accessibility by time-of-day is critical for emergency services, supply chain management, retail analytics, and more. Communicate this with @mapbox.com isochrones visualized with mapgl's new slider control in R.

26 June

mapgl 0.5.0 for R lets you sync up as many maps as your browser can handle. Shown here: 16 distinct demographic maps for the Atlanta area; interact with one, the other 15 are kept in sync. Now I'm not necessarily recommending a 16-panel map... but it's fun to see what's possible.

25 June

Vignette: optimized corridor routing over cost surfaces in R. Useful for pipeline routing, transmission line planning, trail planning, wildlife connectivity modeling, and more. walker-data.com/spopt-r/arti...

24 June

Version 0.2.0 of freestiler, a Rust-powered vector tiling engine for R and Python, has landed on CRAN and PyPI. The highlight: produce vector tiles with dynamic H3 hexagonal binning built-in. Learn how: walker-data.com/freestiler/a...

24 June

The new slider control in R's mapgl package (v0.5.0) isn't just for time-based filtering. Give it a list of paint expressions and you can animate changes over time on your map. Example: population changes at the tract level in Florida, animated in 3D.

23 June

A bivariate look at high-tech employment share and net migration across NUTS2 regions in Europe. Interactively mapped with R's mapgl using the new bivariate choropleth feature, now available in the package's 0.5.0 release. Credit to @milos-makes-maps.bsky.social for his inspirational examples!

22 June

Animated, hierarchical origin-destination commute flows in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX. Downtowns, medical districts, airports, and suburban job hubs light up from 2023 LODES data. Now available in R's mapgl 0.5.0. Credit to @ekotov.pro for the implementation and @ilyabo.bsky.social for Flowmap.gl!

17 June

The upcoming v0.5 release of mapgl for #rstats is going to be massive. Included: a slider control that allows for interactive data filtering - no Shiny required. Thanks to @ekotov.pro - brush a window over a histogram, see your data filter in real-time Lots more examples to share this week

25 May

Working on H3 integration into freestiler, my R/Python vector tiling tool. The new feature uses @duckdb.org internally to dynamically aggregate points into a multi-layer hexagonal tileset based on some function (summary stats, or your own custom SQL). Tiled here: 12M US groundwater wells

I grew up in Oregon without air conditioning, it seemed quite normal at the time, we just pulled out the box fans when it got hot in the summer. Fascinating to explore the patterns in this new Census data - lots of areas around Oregon / the US where AC prevalence isn't as high as you might expect.

census.govLocal Air Conditioning Estimates

My home Census tract in Corvallis is now at 94.7% with AC (my parents eventually got it too) More about the data: census.gov/data/experim... Map it at the tract level yourselves: gist.github.com/walkerke/71e...

walkerdata.gumroad.comAll workshops clearance bundleCLEARANCE: All past workshops can be purchased together for only $99!Get access to over 25 hours of recordings for thousands of dollars in savings. Workshops will be retired May 22nd - so act now!

Final reminder: today's the last day to grab my Census / mapping workshop catalog before the store shuts down tonight. Lifetime access to 25+ hours of recordings, 11 custom tutorials, $99. I really appreciate all of you who have bought it this week!

Mapped: the % of occupied housing units without air conditioning by Census tract. Uses the new U.S. Census Bureau LACE dataset. Map the data yourselves: gist.github.com/walkerke/71e...

I'm archiving my R mapping & Census data workshop catalog permanently on Friday. walkerdata.gumroad.com/l/all-worksh... I've had a great time building examples for these workshops over the years. Here are a few of my favorites:

- A single-year-of-age profile chart comparing 2000, 2010, and 2020 decennial distributions, with tips on making these for all US states in parallel; - Animating drive-time areas in DC by time-of-day and traffic patterns.

Get lifetime access to 25+ hours of recordings and 11 annotated tutorials for $99: Friday is the last chance to buy - all workshops will be archived for good after that.

- A 3D swipe map comparing population density in Dallas-Fort Worth between 2010 and 2020; - A "story map" of Canadian cities with 3D buildings and weather effects;

19 May

146 million US jobs. Visualized by sector on a fast, filterable interactive map. Fly from market to market smoothly with @maptiler.bsky.social's geocoder. Explore for yourselves: walker-data.com/freestiler/l...

18 May

One of my favorite features in R's mapgl package: create custom, branded pop-ups for your interactive maps. Build a map template then use your AI agent to craft a pop-up that looks just the way you want. Learn how - workshops go away for good on Friday: walkerdata.gumroad.com/l/all-worksh...

16 May

The largest cities by area in the US that are not consolidated city-counties are: 1. Houston 2. Oklahoma City 3. Phoenix 4. San Antonio Here's NYC (inclusive of interior water) super-imposed over all four. Explore city sizes with my tool: walker-data.com/maps...

16 May

I'm retiring my R workshops. I'm as committed to R as ever, but the market for workshops has shifted & I'm focusing on other exciting ventures. I bundled the full catalog for $99; grab it (25+ hours, 11 tutorials) before I archive it on Friday. walkerdata.gumroad.com/l/all-worksh...

15 May

City boundaries in the US can be strange. I built a tool to help you explore and compare them. Choose a city, drag it around the map, compare with other cities in the US. Try it out: walker-data.com/maps/city-co...

15 May

I love living in Fort Worth. And I think it's cool that we're now the 10th largest city by population in the US. But it's important to put this into context.

11 May

An interactive legend color picker is coming to the next release of R's mapgl package. Specify a list of color ramp functions when you generate your palette for mapping; your data will automatically re-style with no need for Shiny. Learn more: walker-data.com/mapgl/articl...

8 May

Lots of new features landing in R's mapgl package as it approaches an 0.5.0 release. Today's drop: - An interactive color ramp picker for your legends - Native bivariate choropleth mapping Learn more: walker-data.com/mapg...

30 Apr

Not "flashy" for social media, but some useful quality-of-life features have landed in the development version of R's mapgl package: - Bezier curves and Bezier polygons in the draw control; - A coordinates control to track your mouse position (decimal or DMS);

walker-data.commapgl: WebGL Maps in R with Mapbox and MapLibreProvides an interface to the Mapbox GL JS (<https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox-gl-js/guides>) and the MapLibre GL JS (<https://maplibre.org/maplibre-gl-js/docs/>) interactive mapping libraries to help use...

30 Apr

- Collapsible legends when you need more space to explore your data. If I need a feature for a project, chances are it'll make its way into mapgl. Get started: walker-data.com/mapgl

riverside.comKyle | Apr 27, 2026 001 - Riverside - HD Podcast & Video Software

27 Apr

In geospatial right now there's so much focus on AI and automating our work. But I still think there's room for hands-on exploration and careful, expert-guided spatial analysis. Just recorded this quick walkthrough on some brand-new features in mapgl. riverside.com/shared/expor...

27 Apr

The draw control is now much more than a drawing toolbar: it works as an interactive feature editing environment. You can draw areas of interest, measure them live, edit attributes on the fly, then pull those features straight back into your R session.